Character Creation

Delighted at his new companion, Ris begged his mother to create more, so she did. Some with two legs, some with four. Some with horns, or feathers, some great and some small enough to rest on a single claw-tip. Each one sculpted from the clay, and given a Flower of Life.

– An extract from a modern retelling of the Rissi myth Arc the Builder.

Because we are running a joint ballot with Threshold (see Balloting for more info), the ballot form will be handled separately to character creation. This has a deadline of 11:59PM Tuesday of week 1 (15th October, the same day as character creation), so that we can let people know which games they were successful for before they submit a character.

The form can be filled in here.

The preferred method of submission is via this Google form. You will receive a copy of your response via the email you use to fill in the form.

If, however, you encounter technical issues with this, we can also accept character submissions by email to gm@ventures.oxfordrpg.com, though use of the form is preferred where possible. The deadline for character submissions is 11:59 PM Friday of week 1 (18th October).

There will be a character creation event at 7pm on Tuesday week 1 of Michaelmas where you can ask any questions you have, get inspiration, meet others who are interested in playing Ventures and get excited about the game ahead! There is no need to be at this event if you want to submit a character, but most Society Game players enjoy coming to these sessions before character submission.

This session can also be used to create pre-existing links between characters. Although this is completely optional, some players like to create characters that have some connection before the game, for example, a married couple, a parent and child, siblings, or best friends.

This event will be joint with Threshold – the other Society Game running in Michaelmas and Hilary.

If you can't attend the in-person event, our Discord server can be a great place to help you form backstory links with other characters and get to know some people OC. It's also a useful platform for letting us know if you have any concerns or worries. There are, however, plenty of other methods to contact the GMs so use whichever is most accessible to you!

Ventures is going to be a game focused on discovery and exploration, but has a lot of freedom within that. Characters start out as members or affiliates of the Cartographers' Guild, which gives them access to FTL travel and transport across the galaxy, but does not impose many restrictions. Requirements for membership are quite low, and characters can be part of another organisation, such as a mining guild or trading corporation, without impacting this. For more detail on the themes of Ventures that you might want your character to engage with see Style and Tone and Play this if.... Please also refer to the Conduct and Themes Policy when writing your backstory, and if you feel any part of this backstory may clash with one of these disallowed themes, please talk to the GMs. Additionally, take a look at the Known Galaxy page if you want to get an overview of the setting, or the other setting pages in the sidebar if you want to find out more details about specific planets and organisations. As ever, please do discuss with the GMs if questions or concerns around this arise.

Character Creation in Ventures consists of the following components, more information on which can be found on this page or linked elsewhere on the wiki:

Note: OC means 'out-of-character' – this is anything about you, the player. IC means 'in-character' – this is anything about the character you are playing. For more information about this or any of the other terms used in Ventures, see the Glossary.

• OC information: Inform the GMs (and eventually your fellow players) about your name and pronouns. If you are under 18, you will need to alert the GMs of this for safeguarding reasons (this information will not be shared, as per our Privacy Policy).
• IC name(s) and pronouns: Select a name for your character. Please also tell us your character's pronouns.
• Character Description: Choose a species for your character, and describe their appearance. See the Player Species page and below for more details.
• Questions About Your Character: Please briefly answer a few questions about your character, to help us get a feel of how they will fit into the game. These questions don't require long answers – just let us know who they are briefly. For the exact questions, see Sample Characters. When answering these, please keep in mind that your character must be a member or affiliate of the Cartographers' Guild, who makes an effort to attend their Quarterly meetings.
• Private Bio: A bio of your character visible only to you and the GMs. It's where you can tell us the overall concept for your character, as well as their backstory, their goals and motivations, how they spend their time, and any interesting secrets that you don't want other players to know. Please note that all PCs in Ventures must be adults.
• Public Bio: A short description of your character that will be posted on the Player Characters page, visible to all players. It should contain information that other characters could know about your character.
• Quirks: See the Quirks page and below for more details on this.
• Equipment: See the Equipment and Augmentations page and below for more details on this.
• Influence: See the Influence page and below for more details on this.
• OC Notes to GMs: A message to the GMs, primarily to inform them how they can make the game more comfortable for you. Anything that is not covered in the rest of the form should go here, including accessibility requirements if you like, although you can inform us of these by other means if you prefer. See Accessibility for more info.

For examples of what finished character creation may look like, see Sample Characters.

Tell us your IC (in-character) and OC (out-of-character) names and pronouns!

The various cultures and species in Ventures have different patterns for naming themselves, and have different biologies that can lead to gendered physical characteristics. However, you should not feel limited by this when creating a character. The Cartographers' Guild and many other spacefaring factions are melting pots of culture, and characters should not feel limited to the ancestral names and traditional genders of their species, instead being able to establish their own identity. If you do want to learn more about naming habits however, this information can be found on the Player Species page, as well as the pages for Corico, Kallimar, and the Thousand Colours Moon. Your IC name and pronouns will be listed on the Player Characters page.

A Ventures character can be chosen from 5 different species:

• Balra, native reptilian-like inhabitants of Corico.
• Sailors, ammonia-based lifeforms native to the Thousand Colours Moon that resemble octopodes, using bipedal suits to move around.
• Rissi, avian-like creatures that come from Kallimar.
• Xhuva, a collection of different living beings uplifted from the Xhu (historically the “beasts of burden” of Kallimar).
• Androids, robots designed with internal neuromorphic computing to look and think like organic life.

Note that, while the Xhuva and Androids are not technically species (with the former being a collection of species, and the latter being artificial constructs), they should be treated as if they are species. You can assume OC that Androids are sapient.

Because of the room for customisation of appearance, and the inherently alien nature of these species, please also provide a physical description of your character, indicating what they look like, any significant physical features, and generally things that would help other players imagine who they are. This description should be clear and concise, ideally being limited to 3 sentences.

Please submit a personal private bio that consists of your character's personal background and anything else you would like the GMs to be aware of during the game. Your character's background and personal arc will be taken into consideration when the GMs handle your character's story. You may wish to refer to the NPCs listed on GMs, Crew and NPCs for some details you might like to include. The bio does not need to be long (and please avoid sending us a novel, touched though we will be). This will only be visible to you and to the GMs, so please do use this as an opportunity to tell us all the secrets you hope will be unveiled over the course of the game if you have any. There is no need to have secrets if you don’t want them!

Please also submit a public bio that represents what is publicly known, rumoured, or speculated about your character. This doesn't need to take any particular form (it could be a simple third person description, a conversation between two passersby, an official register form, anything you like really), but should be a couple of paragraphs at most, although there is no strict word limit. Bear in mind that information travel has been slow in the past, and other characters might not have a lot of knowledge about you. This section will be visible to all players on the Player Characters page, and will be posted alongside your character's name, pronouns, and physical description.

Quirks define your interactions as a player with the world of Ventures on a mechanical level. They define what you are and aren't good at, as well as how you are likely to behave in certain situations. They can also help communicate the gameplay experience that you want.

Quirks in Ventures fall into two categories:

• Gameplay Quirks, which represent in-character traits or abilites. These can enable your character to get more gear, control their reputation with others, give them more physical or research-based skills, or control how they mechanically behave in certain situations. You can take up to 5 of these, as long as the total score of them added together equals +1, 0, or -1.
• Playstyle Quirks, which affect your character's experience with the world in an OC way, in essence defining the ways in which the GM team will interact with your character. You can take as many of these as you like, and these can be changed at any time.

For further details and a list of the Quirks you can take, see here.

While Quirks define the learned or innate abilities and traits for a character, Equipment and Augmentations define what you have. Each character starts out with some Equipment, but can gather more as the game goes along. It can help you survive in hazardous environments, give you an edge in planetary surveys, or help prepare you for the worst if things start going wrong.

Every character is assumed to start out with some basic Equipment – standard items needed for system surveying and exploring. In addition to this, each character (unless they have the Poorly-Equipped Quirk) also starts out with 4 tokens they can use to buy Equipment. The list of Equipment can be found here. More Equipment can be earned through Turnsheets or the Well-Equipped Quirk.

Augmentations are a special type of Equipment that are installed directly into the body. These share the same Token system with other Equipment, but cannot be traded or handed away. The list of Augmentations can be found here.

Modifiers are special effects that can change the cost of Equipment, potentially making it better or worse. Each piece of Equipment can have a maximum of 2 Modifiers, and the cost cannot be reduced below 1. The list of Modifiers can be found here.

If you would like for your character to have cosmetic Equipment and Augmentations (such as a fancy hat, prosthetics that offer no extra functionality, or a long coat), you can do this for no extra cost. It does not need to be listed, but might still be helpful to include if it has emotional significance.

When writing Equipment into your submission, please write it in the following format:
Equipment (base cost→cost with modifiers), modifier 1 if relevant, modifier 2 if relevant; any additional flavour text that you want.

For example:

• EVA Suit (3→3), A Cut Above, Bulky; An older and bulkier design, but made to last.
• Weapon (2→3), Compact; A compact laser rifle.
• Wingsuit (1→1);

Influence offers a way for characters to have a wider impact on the galaxy. While investing heavily into Influence might not be desirable for a lone explorer or solo researcher, having a personal set of ships, permanent base of operations, or team of assistant researchers may be desirable. For corporations, pirates, and community builders, it allows many things to be done.

By default, characters do not have any Influence. Characters with the Established Presence Quirk get 4 Expansion Points that can be spent at character creation:

• Influence Installations, permanent ground or space facilities that you own.
• Influence Forces, various squadrons, companies, and agents that you control.

If creating a faction between players, please write it in the following format:
[Faction] Faction name, member list; flavour text if desired.

For example:

• [Faction] Plants and Harvesters, player 1, player 2, player 3; A group dedicated to spreading botany across the stars, with player 3 at the helm.

When writing Influence Assets into your submission, please write them in the following format:
[Asset Type] Asset (base cost→cost with modifiers), {location, Faction affiliation if relevant}, any Traits if taken; Flavour text if you want.

For example:

• [Base] Corico Agricultural Facility (0→1), {Corico, Plants and Harvesters}, Co-operative Enterprise, Luxurious Facilities; A haven in the arid wasteland where farming efforts are made.
• [Installation] Extractor (1→1), {Corico Agricultural Facility}; A hydroponics facility, made to sustain plant life.
• [Company] Company (1→1), {Corico Agricultural Facility Extractor}; Company stationed at hydroponics plant.
• [Agent] Agent (4→4), {Cartographers' Station}, Business (Good), Exploration (Poor), Combat (Poor), Research (Poor); Krizz Carpenter is a Balra with an eye for business, but an eye for very little else.
• [Squadron] Squadron (4→3), {Docked near the Ambrose Vale}, Stolen; A fleet liberated from the Cartographers in construction.

All Assets, including those that can move, need to be given a location.

In this part of character creation you can let the GMs know anything important that is not covered by the form, such as if you have accessibility or health related requirements, if there are particular players or themes you'd like to avoid, what you out-of-character want to get out of the game, or just to be excited at us. Feel free to put whatever you want in this box, or leave it completely blank. You can also see our Accessibility page for other ways to inform us of any additional accommodations you might need.

In order to be able to run a high quality game and maintain a healthy work life balance, if more than 24 players express interest in Ventures we will be forced to ballot. The ballot will be done in combination with Threshold, so that not having a place in one game makes you more likely to have a place in the other (and choosing to play in only one game does not hurt your chances of getting in to a game). In the event of balloting, we will admit groups in the following order until we reach a group which will take us over the player cap, at which point that group will be balloted for places. Subsequent groups will not be balloted and will not get places as players, although might be able to join the crew. The order of priority for player groups will be:

1. Special Cases (mostly reserved for those who have booked the rooms we need, and to catch extraordinary circumstances)
2. From people who have chosen to ballot preferentially in Ventures:
   1. Oxford University students who have not played a Society Game before
   2. Oxford University students who have played a Society Game before
   3. Non-Oxford University Students
3. From people who have chosen to ballot preferentially in Threshold:
   1. Oxford University students who have not played a Society Game before
   2. Oxford University students who have played a Society Game before
   3. Non-Oxford University Students

If someone ballots with no preference between games, they will be entered into the ballot with the people who balloted for each game preferentially. However, if they get into both games and some people are unable to get into either, they will be asked to withdraw from one of the games.

For example, if we have 10 OU players who have not played a society game before, 16 OU students who have played before and 5 Non-OU students all expressing a preference to play in Ventures, all the new players will be admitted, 14 of the 16 OU students who have played a Society Game previously will be admitted and none of the Non-OU students will be admitted as players. They may still be able to join the crew, however.

We will ask players to declare their status on submitting a ballot form and this will be taken on good faith. Players who would not like to take part in balloting if it occurs will be able to indicate this. There will also be a waiting list that you can optionally join if you are not successful in the ballot.